Head of Developer Experience

Company Description

We are looking for an accomplished Head of Developer Experience to lead our platform and delivery-enablement agenda. This senior leadership role reports to the Director of IT Strategy & Architecture and has two direct reports: the Platform Engineering Manager and the Agile Practices & Delivery Lead. The Head of Developer Experience will improve how we deliver product-aligned change by enhancing processes, tooling, ways of working, controls and reporting so those teams can deliver faster safely.

The successful candidate will be responsible for raising standards across developer platforms (developer portal, CI/CD, cloud enablement), standardising ways of working, implementing systematic guardrails and consistent delivery reporting, and driving measurable improvements in delivery performance and developer productivity.

What does the role involve?

• Developer Platforms & Tooling: Own and evolve AJ Bell's internal developer platform (Backstage) and supporting toolchain so product teams can self-serve for common needs (templates, shared libraries, CI/CD, pipelines, cloud patterns).
• Tool & Innovation Adoption: Drive adoption of modern productivity tools (for example, GitHub Copilot / GenAI integrations and Platform Engineering toolings) where they demonstrably improve speed, quality or developer experience.
• Embed controls into the developer toolchain: implement automated quality gates, self-service approval workflows and policy-as-code patterns so compliance is consistent, auditable and minimally intrusive.
• Agile Delivery: Work with and influence existing product-aligned change functions to standardise squad structure, ways of working and "definition of done" across the organisation.
• Standardised Reporting & Metrics: Define and standardise delivery metrics and reporting cadence so product teams report consistently (including leading indicators for change risk and capacity). Use delivery metrics and developer-productivity frameworks to identify bottlenecks and measure improvement.
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the senior advocate for developer experience across AJ Bell. Collaborate with other teams to ensure alignment between platform work, delivery processes and required controls.

What skills and experience you'll bring

• Proven experience leading platform, DevOps, developer-experience, and/or change functions at scale, with a track record of improving delivery speed and quality through tooling, processes and culture.
• Hands on experience implementing developer tooling and platforms (developer portals such as Backstage, CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure and common DevOps automation patterns).
• Proven experience defining SDLC policy and engaging with audit/regulators; able to translate controls into automated tooling and evidence that satisfies risk and compliance reviewers.
• Strong experience standardising agile ways of working across multiple product teams and implementing pragmatic governance/guardrails that balance speed with control.
• Data-driven mindset: experienced in selecting and using delivery and productivity metrics to identify bottlenecks and demonstrate measurable improvement.
• Excellent stakeholder management, with the ability to influence product-aligned change teams (who retain operational ownership) and senior leaders to adopt common standards and tooling.
• A collaborative leadership style: proven ability to mentor leaders (Platform Engineering Manager and Agile Practices & Delivery Lead) and to foster a "platform as product" mindset where internal developer teams are treated as customers.

About us

AJ Bell is one of the fastest-growing investment platform businesses in the UK offering an award-winning range of solutions that caters for everyone, from professional financial advisers to DIY investors with little to no experience. We have over 644,000 customers using our award-winning platform propositions to manage assets totalling more than £103.3 billion. Our customers trust us with their investments, and by continuously striving to make investing easier, we aim to help even more people take control of their financial futures.

Having listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in December 2018, AJ Bell is now a FTSE 250 company.

Headquartered in Manchester with offices in central London and Bristol, we now have over 1,500 employees and have been named one of the UK's 'Best 100 Companies to Work For' for six consecutive years and in 2024 named a Great Place to Work.

At AJ Bell you can expect a friendly working environment with a strong sense of teamwork, we have a great sense of pride in what we do, and this is reflected in our guiding principles.

Our perks and benefits

• Competitive starting salary
• Starting holiday entitlement of 28 days, increasing up to 31 days with length of service
• Holiday buy and sell scheme
• A choice of pension schemes with matched contributions at 8%
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Annual free share awards scheme
• Buy As You Earn (BAYE) Scheme
• Health Cash Plan – provided by Medicash
• Discounted private healthcare scheme and dental plan
• Free gym membership, with an on-site gym providing a wide range of free classes
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Bike loan scheme
• Sick pay+ pledge
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave
• Discounted nursery fees at Kids Planet on Exchange Quay
• Loans for travel season tickets
• Death in service scheme
• Dedicated time for proof-of-concepts and assessing new tech
• Support to attend conferences, events, and meet-ups
• Paid time off for volunteer work
• Charitable giving opportunities through salary sacrifice
• Calendar of social events, including monthly payday drinks, annual Christmas party, summer party and much more
• Parking at Exchange Quay
• Personal development programmes built around you and your career goals, including access to personal skills workshops
• Ongoing technical training
• Professional qualification support
• Talent management programmes
• Peer recognition scheme, with rewards including restaurant and shopping vouchers or time off
• Monthly leadership breakfasts and lunches
• Casual dress code
• Access to a range of benefits from our sponsorship deals

Hybrid working

At AJ Bell, our people are the heart of our culture. We believe in building strong connections by working together. That's why we offer a hybrid working model, where you'll spend a minimum of 50% of your working time per month in the office. For new team members, an initial period will be full-time in the office to help you immerse yourself in our business and build valuable relationships with your colleagues.

AJ Bell is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and all employees are empowered to bring their whole self to work.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy, religion, physical and mental disability, marital status and any other characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010. All decisions to hire are based on qualifications, merit and business need.

If you like the sound of the above, or just want to know more about the company and the role, we'd love to speak to you.